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Man Sentenced To 80 Years For Death Of Caged Son

Riley Choate, left, has been sentenced in the death of his son, Christian. (CBS)

(CBS) –A 40-year-old Gary, Ind. man who admitted that he tortured and killed his 13-year-old son has been sentenced to 80 years in prison.

CBS 2’s Mike Parker reports.

Christian Choate was a smiling, golden haired boy in pictures. But later, his life became hell at the hands of his father, Riley Choate.

For two years, the boy was kept in a dog cage inside the family’s home in the Colfax Mobile Home Park in Gary. The boy was starved and beaten and finally beaten to death. His body was buried under concrete alongside the trailer, where there is now a little memorial.

It is a crime that still haunts residents of the park.

“That’s inhumane,” says Steve Purcell. “That’s something you can’t live with in this life or the next life.”

In court, before he was sentenced under a plea deal with prosecutors, Riley Choate told the judge: “My actions will haunt me forever.”

The boy’s grandfather was in court Friday.

“I was hoping for the death penalty,” Bernard Eriks said. “That’s what he did. He killed. He killed an innocent child.”

Riley Choate’s wife, Kimberly Kubina, was also charged in connection with the boy’s death, and she, too, has made a plea deal. She’ll be in court next month for sentencing on child neglect charges.